I have driven a PHEV for about a year now and I can tell you what they can and can not do. First of all, no one will ever force you to buy a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) so you can relax right now. Second a PHEV is one half electric car, and one half gas car. Most PHEV systems use as much of the electricity they can first saving you as much gas as possible. PHEV can give more energy independence back to the world and as such will keep more of our transportation dollars in the communities they are used in. These cars can be made as big as you like, go as fast as you like, and be as powerful as you like, if and only if someone would build them.
I can’t tell you why the electric car was killed, but I can tell you there is a group of us out here perfecting this technology. Toyota was surprised when buyers started ripping apart their brand new cars, but come on, we have been doing that in this country since cars were first sold. So I hacked into my 230V Prius battery, paralleled a second larger battery pack, hooked up a very expensive charger, and a computer to handle when the second pack should feed power into the Prius battery and when it should not. Then I started to buy wind energy from my local electric utility. Wow a shift from oil to wind power.
Now it take about 4kwh of power to charge my second pack to get it ready for the next day, but I have it on a timer, just like everything else in my house. I get over 100mpg and that is no lie. My point is not about saving money, but more about not burning fuel, any fuel, and throwing it in the air for all of us to breathe. Just because you don’t see it does not mean it is not pollution. I am here to tell you from someone who works in Houston, TX, the pollution is real. With the right car, truck, or SUV, and the right battery pack, I could commute everyday to work and never need gas. However I would still have the ability to drive as far as I wanted if I needed too, at any time.
All this sounds great until you think about the gas just sitting there. Will it go bad, will it gunk up the engine? Well I bet the auto industry could put some sort of forced run, from time to time, on the engine above 20 mph to keep things clean. That has not been a problem for me. The number one question I always get is how much is the battery, how long will it last. Well to them I always say two things. First, how much is your transmission, how long will it last? Second, I tell them I know Prius owners with 350,000 miles on their batteries and they are still going strong. In fact the PHEV battery protects and babies the original Prius battery even more then Toyota did.
Plug-in cars are great for commuting to work and home everyday, but they will not work for people who drive all day. Those drivers should just use the vehicle they need, and if there is no hybrid that will work for them, then I’m sorry, but I guess they will have to keep buying gas. They will also not work for anyone who lives in a place they can’t plug in. That means that homeowners have yet one more way they might be able to save money. What about infrastructure…how will I charge at work? You don’t need to plug in at work. You just plug in at night when you get home and while you sleep it charges.
How will using less oil affect the economy? I can only tell you that my savings has been passed on to local restaurants and shops frequented by my family. Aloha Barbeque, on Fry Road in Katy Texas maybe the first business in America to routinely benefit from a customer who saves money by driving a PHEV. I can spend money there because I did not spend it on gas. Small businesses across America should be screaming for PHEV to be made sooner. Think about it, what if your customers had an extra $400.00 to spend each month. What about taxes, how will we pay for the roads? Come on, do you think for one moment that our government won’t figure out a way to tax us? Rest assured they will, and the roads will be maintained. In the process we as a nation may finally archive energy independence, national security, and clean air. If you don’t want to drive a plug-in car, or even a hybrid, that is fine. You spend your money your way, I’ll spend my money tipping you at your second job.